A report from the Controller of Budget (CoB) has revealed how staff in President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto's office misapplied a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that was meant for development.
According to CoB, the Presidency spent the Ksh80.78 billion loan from the IMF to pay salaries that exceeded the budget that was initially planned for.
The executive office used Ksh18.16 billion from another Ksh70.17 billion loan meant for the state departments for housing, urban development, and ICT & Innovation to pay salaries and allowances.
Another Ksh8.64 billion was spent on salaries and allowances compared to Ksh2.26 billion that was used a year earlier.
“There were instances where revenue from loans and grants meant to fund development activities was applied to the recurrent budget,” the report read.
In the report, allowances and salaries for staff in the Office of President and his deputy grew each quarter and in March the wages had increased to Ksh5.43 billion from Ksh355.8 million the previous year.
The Ministry of Interior salaries increased by Ksh4.5 billion to Ksh92.18 billion.
This comes amid measures by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to reduce Kenya’s increasing public wage bill.
SRC is seeking to remove facilitative allowances for all new employees and limit allowances to not more than 40 per cent of the monthly gross pay.
Kenyans had condemned the IMF for giving the government loans which were squandered and left the country overburdened with debt.
A petition by Kenyans to have the latest Ksh255 billion loan from the IMF was initiated by the civil society.
Over 160,000 Kenyans signed the online petition, asking the IMF to cancel the approved loan as previous disbursements to Kenya were lost through graft.
Renowned economist and political strategist David Ndii explained that the petition did not hold the power to refrain or cancel IMF from giving Kenya the loan.
"IMF acts for creditors, it doesn't act for Kenyans. For instance, if a bank sends a receiver-manager to your business you don't start telling the receiver-manager what they can or can't do.
